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CHOPIN IN THE ESTHETIC REFLECTION AND COMPOSITION WORK OF KAROL SZYMANOWSKI (Chopin w refleksji estetycznej i tworczosci kompozytorskiej Karola Szymanowskiego)

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Abstract

Karol Szymanowski's views on Fryderyk Chopin's legacy, which he formed in the 1920s, played a significant role in the development of the contemporary model of reception of the music composed by the master of Polish Romanticism. They largely contributed to a move away from the dominant nineteenth-century tradition of heteronomic description of Chopin's music for the development of analytical methods that allowed one to describe specifically musical features. Szymanowski was one of the first to approach Chopin's works from the standpoint of twentieth-century sonic constructivism, and his repeated suggestions that there was the Bach-Mozart-Chopin parallel were confirmed - in the area of structural-formal features - by the analytical studies authored by the most eminent German theoreticians of the time: Heinrich Schenker and Hugo Leichtentritt, which in turn led to the change of Chopin's image on a global scale. Szymanowski's articles, correspondence and press interviews show a coherent picture of his views on Chopin's creative work. These can be presented in four thematic lines: 1) Chopin in the historical context; 2) The essence of Chopin's genius and the creative impact of Chopin's music; 3) Chopin and the essence of national music; 4) Chopin and educational, teaching and organizational activities.Especially interesting - in the aspect of Chopin's influence on Szymanowski's creative imagination - appears to be the second thematic range. The question arises about to which of Chopin's works refers the famous statement naming him as 'a futurist of the Romantic era' and which of Szymanowski's works (apart from Mazurkas thoroughly studied in this respect) may, in turn, show their inspiration by this 'futurism'? When recapitulating the harmonic, textural, melodic and rhythmical influences described in literature on the subject, the author shows the previously little-emphasized aspect of the inspiring influence of novel construction ideas developed by Chopin, mainly in his Sonata in B flat minor Op. 35 - a masterpiece which occupies a special place in Szymanowski's writings and, in all probability, had a crucial impact on the development of his (Szymanowski's) musical language. The similarities, presented in this study, between the structural integration techniques developed by Chopin in Opus 27, 28 and 35, and those whose germs can already be seen in Szymanowski's Opus 1, and in a more mature form in Opus 21, 24 and 42 give a special significance to the above-mentioned statements of the maestro of the 'Atma' villa.

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